Travel portals hit high growth in India

MUMBAI: The growth of tourism in India coupled with the growth of its online economy has led to the boom in the travel web portals.

According to Ashwin Damera, CEO and co-founder of Travelguru.com, the Indian online travel business is worth $350-400 million and is growing 40 to 50 percent year on year.

However, the scope for growth is immense. While 63 percent of the tickets are sold online in the U.S, online sales account for only one out of 10 tickets in Asia Pacific, says Bruce Hanna, COO, InterGlobe Technology Quotient.

Travelguru, on the other hand, is still a comparatively smaller player, selling about 500 tickets a day today, though it plans to take it up to 1,000 by the end of this year.

Most agree that the low cost carriers started online bookings in India. Among them, Air Deccan sells the most on the net. SpiceJet, a close competitor, sells tickets worth over $5 million a day through the website, says associate VP, marketing and planning, Sanjay Kumar.